In 1951 Marcel Pagnol and his wife bought “La Lestra”, a magnificent nineteenth-century villa on the sea front at Monte-Carlo in the south of France. Prince Rainier of Monaco was his neighbour and friend. [1]
Marcel Pagnol was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker.
Pagnol’s second play, Topaze premiered on 9 October 1928 at the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris. It was an immediate and lasting success as soon as it hit the stage and the season ran for two years, securing Pagnol’s reputation as a major French playwright. It is among Pagnol’s best known works and is the one that has best stood the test of time.
Topaze is a play in four acts that tells the story of a modest school teacher who is fired for being too honest. He eventually changes his mind when confronted with the corruption of the business world.
The play has been adapted for the Broadway stage and has been filmed multiple times, most notably in 1933 with John Barrymore in the title role.
Although his work is less fashionable than it once was, Pagnol is still generally regarded as one of France’s greatest 20th-century writers and is notable for the fact that he excelled in almost every medium — memoir, novel, drama and film.